Category Archives: Instant Pot

Hello my friends! A couple of weeks ago I found an amazing deal on the 6 quart instant pot. I’d been watching them for a few months after seeing a lot of chat on the interwebs about how awesome these things are. It took the hubby a while to think it was a good idea. It was one more appliance to fill up our cupboards. However, when Kohls’ deal helped convince him.

YogurtI was so excited to make this. Honestly, this was the main reason I wanted an instant pot. Well that an the ability to cook chicken from frozen in 25 minutes. I have a rice cooker and a crock pot. So, although these tools would be useful, I could already accomplish those tasks.

So, back on topic. yogurt. We eat a lot of yogurt in this house between just eating it and putting it in our smoothies. I also liked the idea of making my own yogurt. I hadn’t attempted it before buying the instant pot because it seemed like a lot of work. When I got the instant pot this was the first thing I researched. I immediately found several recipes with minor differences. I do think you may need to do some experimenting to make it work. I was pretty lucky I had success the first time.

Recipe 1
Ingredients
6 cups milk
2 TBS store-bought vanilla yogurt
Directions
1) Sanitize your instant pot: 1 cup water in the instant pot,
set for 1 minutes.Have your valve in the sealing position.
2) Pour out all the water. Add the milk. Push the yogurt button
and then press the Manual button. The display should say boil.
Once the instant pot has boiled the milk, it will ding and the
display should say Yogurt.
3) Once it finished boiling, shut off the instant pot and set a
time for 25 minutes. Measure your yogurt and set on the counter.
4) After the 25 minutes, open the instant pot and stir in the
yogurt. Mix it well.
5) Turn on the instant pot, push the yogurt button and add time
to 14 hours.
6) Drain off extra fluid if desired.

This one worked pretty well. I originally set the instant pot for 8 hours, it didn’t seem set up well. Since it was late at night, I added the additional time to equal 14 hours so I could go to sleep! Everyone in the family love this yogurt. It lasted less than a week and I need to make some more.

For my second batch I decided to add a little vanilla.

Recipe 2
Ingredients
1/2 Gallon Milk
1 individual sized carton of vanilla yogurt
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Directions
1) Sanitize your instant pot: 1 cup water in the instant pot,
set for 1 minutes. Have your valve in the sealing position.
2) Pour out all the water. Add the milk. Push the yogurt button
and then press the Manual button.
The display should say boil. Once the instant pot has boiled the
milk, it will ding and the display should say Yogurt.
3) Once it finished boiling, shut off the instant pot and set a
time for 25 minutes. Measure your yogurt and set on the counter.
4) After the 25 minutes, open the instant pot and stir in the
yogurt and vanilla. Mix it well.
5) Turn on the instant pot, push the yogurt button and add time
to 12 hours.
6) Strain extra fluid as desired.

This second one did not set up as well. I did only do 12 hours instead of the 14. It had quite a bit of extra liquid. I was able to strain off quite a bit of fluid but it was still a runnier yogurt. At first, I was quite worried it wasn’t going to work. However, after it chilled in the fridge, it was thicker. My husband said he didn’t care for the vanilla in it. It felt it added an after taste. I’ll probably not add it in again when I make it but instead we’ll add it after and right before we eat it.

Here’s what the yogurt looked like once its finished but not drained yet.

Have you tried to make yogurt? Do you have a good recipe for it? Have you had better luck when adding in flavoring? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment and share your yogurt success stories!

Is a nurse by profession and mother of two wonderful children, a daughter and a son. She's lucky to be married to a wonderful man for the last 13 years. She enjoys scrapbooking, reading, cycling, jogging.